Google allows public-facing professionals, including dentists and hygienists who see patients, to have their own profile in addition to the practice’s. That’s useful, and it causes more confusion than almost any other part of dental listings.
Solo practices
If one dentist is the only public-facing professional at the location, Google’s guidelines recommend a single profile rather than two competing ones. The usual format is the brand and the dentist together, for example “Smith Family Dental: Dr. Jane Smith.” Check Google’s current guidelines for individual practitioners when you set this up.
Multi-dentist practices
In a group practice, the practice has its own profile and each dentist may have an individual profile. Individual profiles can rank for searches like the dentist’s name and collect their own reviews. Use the practice’s main phone number or the dentist’s direct line consistently, and choose the category that matches that dentist.
When a dentist leaves
An associate’s listing doesn’t disappear when they do. Patients keep finding it and calling. Mark it as moved (if they practice elsewhere) or ask Google to remove or close it, and agree on this in writing when the dentist departs. Don’t rename a departed dentist’s listing to the practice name: that breaks Google’s rules and can carry reviews that belong to someone else.